Private parties, free booze, hookers, but no poker

(From Front Left: Jdawg, Foolishgolf, twolip69, myself, chipmystack, Standing from left: Clover777, Welcomeme, Yaboystu)
My first full day of Vegas was stressful in the morning. We took off around 11:30 in the morning to head to the casinos. 2lip, jdawg, and chipmystack were all playing the 1500 NL bracelet event (2lip was the only player to make day 2 and he just busted short of the money). After we dropped them off, I went to The Venetian to register for the $350 deepstack tourney. I went to the ATM and tried to withdraw $500, but the machine didn't work. So I tried another one, no success. Then I spent 20 minutes talking to my bank trying to get it activated. After we finally got it to work, I stood in line for another 15 minutes to get a players card. By the time I finally got all my shit together, the late registration had ended and they were only accepting alternates. So I said screw it and played some cash at Ceasar's for a bit. I lost about $175 after a failed bluff attempt.

At night, all of us went to a private party at Studio 54 in MGM Grand hosted by Ultimate Bet. All the UB Pros were there including Phil Hellmuth and Liv Boree. I met Debo34 and he seemed like a really cool guy. The party was sick. The booze was all free, the girls were gorgeous, and the place was really nice. Easily the highlight of the party was when Clover777 strutted onto the dance floor, grabbed this chubby gal, and stuck his tongue down her throat. Freakin epic!

On the way back, we were all pretty hammered stumbling through the casino. A few of us threw some money down on roulette. I bet $100 on 2nd third and of course it comes up zero, making us all losers. Just as we were about to exit the casino, welcomeme and clover start talking to 2 hookers. We tried to negotiate a deal for them to come deal our homegame, but the asking price was too high. Our intention was that we would all pitch in and the winner of the homegame would get a handjob from the hooker. That would be an awfully damn expensive HJ. Still, the skanks followed us to the cab and were told they couldn't come with cuz we had reached maximum capacity. They looked really sad. I didn't feel bad though, cuz hookers don't have souls.

Today we are just gonna chill out by the pool, have some beers, and grill. Tomorrow, I get back to work

Las Vegas Baby!

After a brief flight, I finally arrived in fabulous Las Vegas, NV. Instead of staying in a hotel, a group of online players and I rented a house. The guest list includes the following players:
Myself
Yaboystu
Jdawg
Clover777
Foolishgolf
Welcomeme
Chipmystack
2lip69

The house is freakin sweet. There is a pool, hottub, putting green, and patio outside. Inside are 4 bedrooms, a full kitchen, and a living room area with a big screen tv. I'll take and post pictures later. While in Vegas, I plan on playing several of the Venetian Deepstack series events. The buy ins are mostly 300 and 500 with one or two $1000 events scattered in there. I plan on playing them all. I also plan to try one or two satties into the main event at the RIO. I'll post my results every night if ya'll wanna follow me. Wish me luck!

Early Birthday Present

Two days from now, I will be 22 years old. That means I have to be grown up within 3 years. Gotta look for a wife, have kids, get a job, buy a house, the works. So I better enjoy the next 3 years for all they're worth :)

Last night, I gave myself an early birthday present by winning the 15k guaranteed $30 rebuy for ~$4300. I actually had a chance to win the TLB, making a deep run in the 10k as well, but I busted out just short of the final table. I believe a top 5 finish would have given me the win. Oh well, I was certainly happy with last night.

I neared the money as a short stack, but picked up some good hands at the right spots, doubling up with AQ vs AJ and KK vs 77. The field was surprisingly weak for the 15k, which was a pleasant surprise. I got away 3 betting light in a few spots, and even saw a guy fold and show AK to one of my 3 bet shove. I got my first huge suckout of the tournament when my QQ beat AA 4 handed (although I would have still had 100k had I lost, instead I was up to 190k). When we got HU, I was down 2:1 in chips. The HU battle lasted a long time. My opponent was very loose aggressive. Lately, I have been trying to play to my opponent's style, rather than trying to impose my own. I generally am the LAG one, but last night I played TAG, carefully picking spots to 3bet and calling to see cheap flops rather than raising every button. I played a KJoffsuit about as bad as I could have played it and lost all but 100k of my stack. Down 6.5 to 1, I was lucky to pick up KK and double vs j10. We went back and forth for a while until I picked up 99 and 3bet his 28k raise to 82k. He shoved 365k and I called. He tabled k10 and I won the race. A couple hands later, I raised to 30k with A8, he shoved 200k. I felt that he was simply frustrated at this point, so I made the call. He showed 77. Things didn't look good until the river brought an 8 and I took the tournament down. It was awesome to run as well as I did (Won 3 big flips and even an 80/20!!)

This tournament presented a bit of a dilemna for me. Early in the HU match, my opponent got disconnected. I waited for him to get back and we continued playing. However, he got disconnected again later (when I was a bit shorter stacked) and I picked up about 4 sets of blinds while he was sitting out. Had it been a player that I knew personally, I would have had no problem waiting for him. And I always wait the first time it happens. But, I realize that waiting for someone to get reconnected costs me potential blinds, and even worse, time, which all translates to money. If I wait, we play less hands and the blinds go up faster, limiting play and having to rely more on good cards/luck. So, what do ya'll think you would do? Would you wait for him to get back a 2nd time, or would you pick up the free blinds as fast as you could?

One more week of summer class

I am done with 4/5 weeks of summer class. I am sooo excited to be done. My class is really easy, but it sorta cramps my style. The class runs from 7:30 until 9:00 on MWF and from 7:30 until 11 (lab) on T/H. So I often times go to class in pretty rough shape. Since I've been chasing the MTT weekly TLB, I've spent a couple of nights where I have been up until 2:00 AM. Actually, I have had a lot of nights like that. I have been deep in so many tournaments this week. But my only significant cash was a win in the $30 rebuy for $2800. My problem is that I have been running well early in tournaments and have been running just awful deep. For example, one night I had the chip lead in both the 20k and 15k guaranteed tournaments with under 50 people left. I didn't cash in either one, running queens into kings for a giant pot and losing a big flip AK vs 1010. I've also been super unlucky. I've lost about 10 tournaments with a pocket pair or higher ace vs an ace rag. Its super frustrating to think that a week that should have been 10k+ profits will probably end up as break even because of a few ugly beats deep in tournaments. The important thing is that I am playing well at the right time.

In 2 weeks, I will be leaving for Las Vegas. I will be out there for 10 days, and plan on playing the Venetian Deepstack series and maybe a small buy in bracelet event. Aside from that, I will be attending a good friend's wedding. So I guess the TLB race will have to wait until the middle of JULY :)

Grillout, Movies, and Hating Sundays

I didn't play very much poker this weekend. On Friday, a couple of buddies came down from the cities. We had a little grillout and then drank a few beers. Apparently I was a bit more sloppy than I remember, as I heard many stories about me the following morning.

On Saturday, my summer roommate and a friend of ours went to the movie "The Hangover." We arrived 5 minutes before the show started, and the theatre was freakin packed. The only seats open were the ones directly up front. We had to look damn near straight up to see the screen. That really sucked. The movie; however, was very good. It had a lot of college humor. But to those of you who say it is the "funniest movie ever," I'd like to respectfully disagree. I am such a fan of the movie "Old School," and will probably forever view that as the funniest movie ever made. "The Hangover" was one of the funniest movies I've seen recently, alongside "Role Models" and "Step Brothers."

Sunday, I spent the entire day playing cards. I started with the 6k at 11:00 and ended with the 10k around 1:30 AM. It was a long, frustrating day. I saw fantastic cards, and built up a stack in almost every tournament I played. However, once I started to make it deep, I lost a bunch of crucial coinflips/80-20's. I swear to you, I busted out of 5 tournaments after being crippled by aces, then building back up and losing a huge flip. On the day, I had 5 cashes, including 4 final tables. My biggest win was for $1100 in the $50 rebuy 5k (8k on sunday). With cards like those, I should have probably won closer to 10k. It will be a long time before I see cards like that again. Its just too bad I couldn't win the pots that mattered deep. On the bright side, I am sitting in 19th place in the TLB leaderboard, so I might try to make a run at it this week.